Alternative credit fintech raises £3.7m in pre-seed round
Kennek, which provides operating software for the alternative credit sector, has raised $4.5m (£3.7m) in a pre-seed funding round.
The London-based fintech, which was founded last year, has developed an end-to-end operating system that it says streamlines operations for lenders, credit investors, corporates and servicers in the alternative credit industry. Its solution can be used by existing lenders and banks, but also as a white label product for new lenders.
The funding round was led by Dutch Founders Fund, ffVC and Plug and Play Ventures.
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Kennek was founded by credit industry veterans Thibault Lancksweert, Edmund Parsons and Xavier De Pauw. De Pauw, who holds the chief executive role at Kennek, previously worked in structured finance at Merrill Lynch and built challenger bank MeDirect.
“De Pauw, Lancksweert and Parsons bring such varied and necessary experience together to address the inefficiencies of lending,” said Laurens Groenendijk of Dutch Founders Fund.
“The uniquely designed product and lending rails that Kennek is creating will make it much easier for lenders worldwide to launch, operate and scale.”
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The aim of Kennek is to address the operational pain points facing lenders. The firm says that the alternative lending industry is still largely run on manual workflows, putting data in spreadsheets.
This means that lenders are not cost-efficient and struggle to access funding from institutional investors who require reliable and connected data, and robust and scalable processes, Kennek said.
The ultimate goal of Kennek is to make scalable and robust lending infrastructure accessible to everyone in order to facilitate more funding to flow into the real economy.
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Kennek’s UK operation has already secured clients operating in the areas of small business loans, R&D credit and commercial real estate.
“Our goal is to create a single point of truth for all stakeholders in the lending value chain,” said De Pauw.
“This will help drive capital from institutional investors to the real economy, such as SMEs, property developers, and corporates.”